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Grass fire sparks concern near Sierra Vista

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Posted 9:09 PM 5/21/2012 : Grass fire sparks concern near Sierra Vista

TUCSON - A close call Monday for people south of Sierra Vista, and flashbacks to last year's Monument Fire after three wildfires broke out in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties.

The largest, the Collins Fire sprung up along Highway 83 north of Sonoita burning about 50 acres so far and closing Parker Canyon Lake.

Meantime crews are watching the Campini Fire burning up from Mexico.

But as News 4 Tucson's Rebecca Taylor reports, a small brush fire near Hereford caused the most concern.

Dirt bikes and tools in the Twitchell family garage came dangerously close to being destroyed.

Flames flattened the backyard shed, then spread to the garage. Firefighters saved it just in time.

"This corner of the garage, you can see we have nine motorcycles in there. And when my wife called, she said the garage is burning down," describes homeowner Matt Twitchell, "Two of the bikes I got this weekend, I said oh no!"

His wife, Cherise was inside with the kids unaware the five acre grass fire was headed their way.

"Well I got a phone call from a friend. She said I'm at your gate, there's a fire in your yard," said Cherise, "So then I'm trying to grab our two dogs, my daughter. I'm like load up the dogs, and lets get going."

Incredibly, it's not their first run-in with a wildfire in this home.

"Last year we were actually moving in to this house, and we had two truck loads in, and that's when we were evacuated. We tried to move in the day before the wild fires last year," said Matt.

Too close for comfort, times two, and Cherise now has a new preparedness plan in place.

"I just kept saying, we're going to lose it all. I don't know what we're going to do. It's not like we have anything packed for an emergency, which now is going to get done. I actually told the kids tonight, you'll pack a bag for three or four days worth of clothes and it will just sit there."

The family tells us they do have insurance.

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